Veteran Tamil actor Manivannan is no more. He was 58. The south Indian actor cum director died due to cardiac arrest on Saturday morning (June 15, 2013) at his Nesapakkam residence in Chennai. He is survived with wife Sengamalam, daughter Jyothi and son Raghuvannan. His body was covered with the Tamil Ealam flag as per his wish. The cremation ceremony will be held on Sunday evening in Chennai. Parthiban, Bhagyaraj, Satyaraj, Ilayaraja, Senthil, Vivek, Kovai Sarala and several others from film industry and political field have paid homage to Manivannan at his residence.
Born in Sulur in Coimbatore district, Manivannan stepped into Tamil film industry in 1979 as actor and later turned director. He worked as an assistant director for Bharathi Raja before turning director. The truly talented man has directed over 50 films. As an actor, with over 400 films to his credit, Manivannan has become popular among Telugu audience through dubbed films like action king Arjun’s ‘Oke Okkadu’ (Muddu Krishna, PA to Chief Minister), Kamal Haasan’s ‘Bhamane Satya Bhamane’ (Lover of Bhamma), ‘Shivaji’ (Rajnikanth’s father), Ajith’s ‘Prema Lekha’, ‘Kamal Haasan’s ‘Panchatantram’, etc. He also did a straight film in Telugu titled ‘Kubusam’. He has shared his screen space with almost all top stars like Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay, Surya, Ajith, Vikram, Karthik, Sathyaraj, Madhavan, Mohan, etc., by portraying several characters in supporting roles as a villain, comedian, father, uncle and so on. His 50th directorial venture ‘Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA’ was released a month before he passed away.
Ragalahari prays sincerely for his soul to rest in peace.
